Children Must Be Protected
by ucferrarisgirl
Summary: Frank bops one to someone while in Cambodia but he is upset by the kidnapping of an ambassador's daughter


WARNING: STRONG STRONG Content. Could be disturbing.  
  
  
  
Children Must Be Protected  
  
A week passed virtually effortless. The team went about their daily business, quiet and happy for the most part.  
  
But when Frank called a meeting, the grim look on his face told the team this was no ordinary assignment. Frank was capable of many facial expressions--the man had emotions, and a lot of them, and while he didn't express his emotions through his voice often, he certainly expressed his emotions on his face.  
  
And the look on Frank's face was the grimmest any of the team had ever seen. Jake and Monica exchanged glances.  
  
"It's bad," Monica confirmed.  
  
"You know about the case?" Alex asked, pausing the coffee cup on its way to her mouth.  
  
"Mmmm, I know what Frank asked me to research...the statistics and such," Monica replied. "You're not going to like the subject matter," she finished.  
  
When the team was assembled, Frank handed them their chilling assignment.  
  
"We're to rescue the kidnapped teenage daughter of the American Ambassador to Cambodia," Frank told the team. The team didn't know who was the American Ambassador to Cambodia, but they knew Frank would fill them in.  
  
"She was kidnapped while out with her entourage of security guards, most of whom were killed, shot with a single bullet in the back of the head," he continued, pacing as he did when he felt he couldn't control something which could be controlled.  
  
His accented voice echoed in the room, "The lone survivor--who survived because he'd had a steel plate inserted in his head--told the Cambodian police that the teenaged Jade had been kidnapped by the notorious Phnom Penh child sex ring."  
  
Quiet fell over the team. Shock was registered on their faces.  
  
Frank continued, calmly but with that grim look on his face. "It was supposed to have been a custody visit."  
  
Jake, Alex, Cody and Monica sat around the table, quite stunned.  
  
"Cambodia is a hot-spot for child sex rings, with children being snatched from their parents in broad daylight. Children are also taken on their way to or from school, held hostage, then forced to have sex many times in a daily in exchange for food," Frank said.  
  
Frank's face had been stoic when he said that, but there was an edge to his voice. Child sex rings were brutal, the most insidious form of child abuse known to man. The topic chilled Frank's blood, but he brought his voice under control as he told the team:  
  
"The usual way for the rings to 'initiate' their new 'workers' into the ring is to put them into a dark place--a room, sometimes just a wooden box. They are denied food, and given very little water," Frank said.  
  
Monica now said, "Brainwashing. The deprivation of light, food and water causes the brain to shut down. You wouldn't be able to tell day from night. Or how much time has passed. You become obsessed with getting food or water. Drinking your own urine is a common reaction when you're deprived of water. You'd do anything your captors told you in order to get the most basic necessities: food and water."  
  
Jake grimaced, as did Cody and Alex. Frank's face remained stoic.  
  
Frank continued, "The deprivation of food, as we know, causes the body to shed weight. From the information we have, the kidnappers wait several months so the child's appearance is altered by the lack of food. The hair is usually cut short, and always dyed a different color."  
  
Monica gave the stats. "In the Philippines there are estimated to be about 100,000 child prostitutes. Cambodian officials estimate one third of the sex workers in the capital of Phnom Penh are between the ages of twelve and seventeen. India says there are more than 500,000 under-age prostitutes in their country alone."  
  
.  
  
Frank spoke again. "Our assignment is to find the 17 year old daughter of the American Ambassador to Cambodia--Jade Thrushton."  
  
"Annamarie Sinclair's daughter?" Cody asked, incredulous.  
  
Frank looked at him, which silenced Cody. "Yes," he said. "The one and same."  
  
"Jade's been gone two weeks now," he shot Cody a stern look. "And no, it hasn't been in the news. It's been suppressed."  
  
Cody just nodded. Annamarie Sinclair had a huge fandom. The scandal surrounding her much-publicized affair with Jeremy Thrushton, then high- level attorney for the Justice Department 18 years ago still hadn't died down. Annamarie had been, 18 years ago, just 18 years old. Jeremy, for his part, had denied paternity, but a blood test had snagged him.  
  
He had still doubted the results though, and when DNA paternity tests became routinely available, he obtained a court order forcing Jade to take a DNA test. Jade, for her part, had been humilitated and embarassed by her classmates for being a 'love child', a term she hated.  
  
The test results showed Jeremy Thrushton to be Jade's father.  
  
So he reluctantly agreed to custody visits, even after he was appointed Ambassador to Cambodia three years ago.  
  
Frank interrupted Cody's thoughts by saying, "Jade didn't want to go. She wanted to stay at her boarding school for the summer term. It's well known she doesn't much like her father, but her mother insisted," he said. "Now she's been kidnapped, and being prepped for prostitution in Cambodia."  
  
"We leave now. We will buy clothes and such in Phnom Penh," Frank told his team. They gathered Cody's equipment, secured the nest, and went to the airport, where the government had a private plane waiting for them.  
  
************************  
  
Across the International Dateline, in Phnom Penh, the stalker silently tracked the team. He was dressed in blue jeans, despite the summery weather.  
  
He knew what he was up against. He'd worked with Sonny Walker, and he knew who Franklin Donovan was and moreover, what Franklin Donovan looked like.  
  
He wasn't friendly towards many men, but Sonny Walker was an exception. Sonny had pulled him out of some bad scrapes a long time back. Sonny had helped his late ex-wife financially when he himself was incarcerated-- courtesy of Franklin Donovan. He paused a moment, thinking about his late ex-wife. He'd loved her, even when she had divorced him. He still loved her.  
  
He hadn't heard from Sonny in many years. And he'd recently heard Sonny had gone into hiding because of Frank Donovan.  
  
So the stalker was going to even an old score.  
  
Thus far, he hadn't made any moves towards Franklin Donovan. He merely watched as the five members of the team entered the hotel where they were staying in Phnom Penh. A classy hotel, he thought. The government must be paying a fortune to keep them there. Waste of taxpayer money to lodge Frank Donovan.  
  
He thought about Frank Donovan. He didn' t know where Frank came from, knew very little about Frank's personal life. Frank was known not to share much of his personal life. Then again, those working in crime and those pursuing crimebreakers shared very little of their personal lives with others. Too much information given out could be used against somebody. Both he and Frank knew very well that careless slips of the tongue could get loved ones kidnapped--or killed.  
  
He knew where Jade Thrushton was being kept. And he knew Frank Donovan would have a difficult time finding her. She was so near, yet so far, from her father.  
  
He then went to the car they'd exited and placed a tracking device under the rim of the left rear wheel.  
  
He waited, and lighted a cigarette, sat down. He knew Frank would exit the building after checking in and securing his hotel room. Then, as he had since the team first alighted at Phnom Penh's airport, he would track them.  
  
Over the years since Donovan had had him incarcerated, Adam Banker had become an expert shot. Better than Franklin Donovan, he thought. Few could match Donovan's expertise with a gunsight, as Adam Banker well knew.  
  
But Adam had had nearly 14 years to perfect his eye.  
  
He'd set up the kidnapping of the teenaged Jade Thrushton in order to flush Donovan out. Along with his crack team. Or at least most of it.  
  
The techie and the shorter woman he might let live--they were of very little consequence for they would have no way of tracking him. But the other two, the undercovers, he wanted to eliminate. They'd want revenge on whomever had taken down their new boss--and Adam knew Frank was their new boss. Not much escaped notice in the crime world. And word of mouth moves fast in crime circles.  
  
Ahh, Adam thought. Two more lives won't matter in the end. He decided to pick off the other two. He'd pick them off first, get Frank nice and upset.  
  
No. On second thought, I'll take out the two deep undercovers, he thought to himself as he dragged on his cigarette. He noticed Frank walking out of the hotel. The two deep undercovers were with him. They got into their car and started off.  
  
"Good. So very good," he murmurred to himself as flipped on the GPS tracker. It showed the car was now a half a kilometer away, and was heading towards the American Embassy.  
  
"Good," he said. He wondered what Frank would say if he knew just how close to the American Embassy Jade Thrushton was located. He had finally outsmarted Franklin Donovan. Frank didn't bother to sweep the car for tracking devices. Tsk, tsk, Franklin, you're getting careless. Adam thought to himself. He dragged on his cigarette, before putting it out.  
  
********************  
  
"Frank! I'm picking up a signal from your car," Cody said in Frank's earpiece, as Frank had stopped to pick up some bottled water at a roadside vendor, half a kilometer from the hotel. Phnom Penh could get very warm and the team was sweltering.  
  
Frank was instantly alert.  
  
"It's a GPS tracking device," Cody continued. "I recognize the wave length."  
  
Jake and Alex immediately scanned the area around them, as did Frank. Frank looked in all the usual places and soon discovered the tracking device under the left rear wheel rim.  
  
"Placed there when we checked into the hotel," Frank reasoned. He cursed himself and his face took on a grim look. He hadn't expected this, and Frank liked to control things.  
  
Frank considered. Leaving the device on the car would put his team in danger. But taking the device off would enable Frank to take down his stalker.  
  
Frank decided to leave the GPS on to flush out his new quarry.  
  
"Cody, can you get video on this car?" he asked.  
  
"I'll send Monica over with the equipment," Cody replied.  
  
"Good. We'll be waiting," Frank said.  
  
*******************  
  
During the ten minute taxi ride over to where three fifths of the team were, Monica had time to wonder. And she'd been wondering why Annamarie Sinclair hadn't come to Phnom Penh to be there for her daughter's sake. She thought Annamarie Sinclair was a prima donna. So she'd lose the part in the action movie--there were other, far more talented actresses who could play that part. Jade should have been more important than a movie role.  
  
Jeremy Thrushton had been worried sick about his daughter, and it had showed in his haggard appearance, when he'd met the team at the airport. He'd used his diplomatic status and had gotten the team through Customs without any questions at all, and no searching of the luggage.  
  
Frank had suggested meeting at the American Embassy but Ambassador Thrushton had nixed that idea. Some of the secretaries were a bit too chatty, and the Embassy allowed them to use the internet and instant messaging as a means of communicating with their families back stateside at low cost. He explained to his staff that he'd been ill with a stomach virus the last two weeks. He'd also told them Jade had asked to be sent off on a youth group trip to Perth.  
  
"Excellent use of media avoidance techniques, Ambassador Thrushton," Frank had told him as they'd sat in the Ambassador's limousine--Monica had been surprised there were limousines in Phnom Penh, for this wasn't the kind of city in which she thought limousines were used. Cambodia was more of a rustic country.  
  
Monica had marvelled that she could speak at least one word in this country, have a native understand her. Cambodian was a language from the Austro-Asiatic language family and she wasn't familiar with it. She'd since discovered that the word for "taxi" was 'taxi' in 87 different languages. This trivia was courtesy of a young man on a backpacking trip with whom she'd shared the taxi. She thought it would be a good idea for her to travel with someone as she had waited in the taxi at the corner closest to the hotel and saw the backpacker trying to wave down a cab.  
  
The cab she was riding in was close to the team. She saw Frank next to the car, his lips in a thin line, which meant that he was worried (dad blast it! she was beginning to sense his moods!) and Monica now motioned for the driver to let her off. She tried to pay the fare, but the young British man waved the taxi off, telling her to have a good day. She nodded and Frank stepped up beside her.  
  
She handed him the package from Cody without a word. Frank opened the package and installed the pen sized digital camera, which Cody called a videoman, on the rear of the car. Frank ran the wires from the videoman to the laptop in the trunk. Cody had found this small camera particular piece of technology in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, and thought this pen sized camera with live broadcasting capability would be perfect for the team to use on assignments. Frank had wholeheartedly agreed.  
  
Monica had actually caught Frank playing with the videoman back at the nest, a coy expression on his face: "It's a good idea for everyone to know how this thing works," he'd told her when she'd walked in his office with a pile of papers for him to sign. He had grimaced then, hating paperwork.  
  
This camera would relay the live footage of their backtrail to Cody's surveillance system he'd set up in the hotel, and hopefully Frank could discover who was stalking his team.  
  
"Cody, I need you to tap into the American Embassy's surveillance cameras and take a look at the footage. Relay to Jake and Alex your findings," Frank told him.  
  
"Aye. I have visual," Cody confirmed. Frank made a point of standing on the curb, looking around.  
  
Then, he motioned for Monica to take a taxi back to the hotel. Jake and Alex got into the car with Frank, who started the car and pulled into the ever-present traffic jam.  
  
*******************  
  
Frank had decided to drop off Jake and Alex at the American Embassy on the pretense of being Americans down on their luck--just been mugged and needing an emergency loan. Frank knew an American could go to their Embassy in any country and receive assistance from the Consular Affairs office. Unlike some other countries, like Canada, which gave their citizens emergency loans if necessary, US Embassies only arranged for loans from the citizen's bank or relatives.  
  
But the pretense of needing an emergency loan would suffice for now. Frank just wanted to see if any other information could be dug up, for he suspected someone at the Embassy had known about the kidnapping, primarily because the kidnapping occured with such precision. The Phnom Penh gang usually didn't take out fifteen armed guards just to get one child.  
  
"Jake, Alex, your assignment is to talk to the staff of the Consular's office and see if you can find out if anyone came into the Embassy recently, especially on the pretense of asking questions. You're to ask for the Consular to arrange for an emergency loan. Cody will relay to you his findings from the surveillance footage," Frank said as he pulled up in front of a Marriott hotel. "Jake, I'll need to give you a right hook to make the mugging look authentic. Alex, you'll need to tear your clothes as if you were trying to run away but were grabbed," Frank said. "Don't worry, Jake. You won't see it coming," Frank said smoothly as he got out of the car. He waved away a Marriott employee who'd come to attend their luggage.  
  
"Uh, yeah, okay," Jake said. He wasn't looking forward to having Frank hit him. A Krav Maga expert, Frank knew just where to hit for the best effect. Jake had seen Frank's martial arts abilities and knew he'd have quite a bruise. Jake got out of the car as well, beginning to think he should have sat in the front seat instead of just behind Frank. That would have given him more time to prepare for Frank's right fist.  
  
A car honked and Jake automatically turned his head. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground staring up at a concerned Alex.  
  
"You all right?" she asked him as she helped him sit up.  
  
"Ooooooo. That hurrrt!" Jake said, rubbing his sore cheek.  
  
"Well, your cheek's already swelling and a viscious color of purple," Alex told him. "Did you have to hit him so hard?" she asked Frank.  
  
"Sorry about that, but you need to look mugged, and we have no props here," Frank told them as he grabbed Alex's shirt and ripped it.  
  
"Hey!" Alex but a look from Frank silenced her. "Yeah, I know, no props," she said.  
  
"All right, get in you two," Frank said, getting in the car and shutting the door.  
  
Jake muttered under his breath, "I will never cross that man," as he got in the car behind Frank.  
  
"I heard that," Frank said, looking at Jake in the rearview mirror as he started the car, leaving the Marriott employee standing surprised at what had just happened.  
  
A few minutes later, Jake and Alex were dropped off several blocks from the American Embassy.  
  
"Check in with me and Cody," Frank told them, before driving off to flush out his new quarry.  
  
********************  
  
Monica had just stepped into her taxi which would take her back to the hotel when she noticed the man. He was acting unusual, glancing around him all the time, and was peering intently into a gadget which looked suspiciously familiar. Cody would know what the man was carrying.  
  
--I'd expect that kind of behavior from a woman, glancing around herself constantly, especially a woman travelling alone, Monica thought to herself.  
  
--But a man? Glancing around? He's nervous about something. Monica took a second pen sized digital camera out of her front pocket, and held it up, getting a picture of the strange man.  
  
Ten minutes later at the hotel, she was scowling in frustration because she'd set off the electronic fence Cody had installed in hallway leading down to the team's hotel headquarters. Cody had had a little too much fun with the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog and had found a wireless portable security fence, along with more esoteric toys like the world time clock now sitting on Frank's desk, which he rather liked, and the drop down under- cabinet tv that Cody had installed in the nest's kitchen.  
  
Cody had set his fence alarm to ring quite loudly and he was laughing as she entered the room.  
  
"You should have seen your face when you set off that alarm!" he told her, pointing to the baby monitor slash portable handheld television he'd also found in the HS catalog. "I recorded that for Frank to see," he finished, for this baby monitor's receiver had a vcr hook up.  
  
Monica chose to ignore Cody's remarks, and asked "Cody, is this someone we should know about?" showing him the picture in the digital camera.  
  
"I'll scan that picture into all the databases," Cody replied, all business.  
  
Frank broke in, his melodic accent coming in clear through Cody's equipment, "Cody, I want to see that footage of Monica! And Monica, good work. What's he wearing?"  
  
"Jeans. White shirt, greek sandals," Monica told him. "Blonde hair, shoulder length, quite messy. Unwashed. He was walking in the direction you took off in."  
  
"What brought your attention to him?" Frank's voice asked.  
  
"He was glancing around. At first I thought he might be lost, but a lost person would look lost, bewildered. There's a certain expression a person gets on their face when they're lost. But this man, he looked nervous, and kept peering into a gadget that looked like..." Monica's voice trailed off as she looked through Cody's equipment.  
  
"Looked like what?" Frank asked.  
  
"Like, uhm, like, Cody? What's this?"  
  
"A GPS tracking device," he replied. "That's what he put under the tire rim. He'd need a second one to track the GPS signal."  
  
"That's what he was carrying--a GPS tracking device. So I thought I'd take a picture and see if he's someone we needed to know about," Monica told Frank.  
  
"Excellent," Frank's voice said.  
  
Cody's slick black laptop computer beeped. "Uh, oh. Frank is not going to like this," Cody said aloud, more to himself.  
  
"I heard that," Frank said.  
  
"Adam Banker," Cody said, suddenly business.  
  
In his car, Frank's mouth went into a grim line. It seemed a lot of old enemies were popping up. Adam Banker had been helped by Sonny Walker at one time. Frank wondered how Adam could have known the team was in Phnom Penh.  
  
Then it struck him Adam was the one responsible for the kidnapping. He was attempting to flush out Donovan and his team. It almost worked, Adam, Frank thought. But I'm a better shot than you.  
  
Frank said, "I'll lure him outside the city. Cody, scan the footage from the Embassy's security cameras and see if Adam Banker was loitering around the Embassy in the past three weeks."  
  
"Aye."  
  
*********  
  
Frank and Adam drove their respective cars for several kilometers outside Phnom Penh and into a densely wooded suburb. Frank saw a small road off to the left of the main road and he pulled off on it, driving down a mile or so. The road was deserted.  
  
Frank got out and made as if he was going to go behind some bushes. He heard Adam's car pull up behind his own car. Frank slowly turned around, making sure his gun was in his hand, slightly behind his back.  
  
"Franklin Donovan," Adam said, flipping his long hair out of his eyes. .  
  
"Adam Banker," Frank replied, noting the gesture and thinking that a woman doing the gesture would not have alarmed him but a man flipping his hair out of his eyes was a sign of defiance.  
  
"Today is your day to die, Franklin Donovan," Adam said. He thought he'd take down Franklin Donovan in front of his two undercovers, but where were the two undercovers? He'd thought they'd gotten in the car with Frank but there was only Frank standing in front of him. His two undercovers were nowhere to be seen. Adam was alert. Had Frank dropped the UC's off and they were now coming up behind him, ready to take him down unawares?  
  
"I see," Frank said mildly, startling Adam out of his brief reverie.  
  
"You don't believe me?" Adam queried, covering his reverie.  
  
"Not for a moment. You must pay more attention and stop daydreaming," Frank mildly replied.  
  
"Oh? Why so?"  
  
"Because this is your day to die," Frank said, whipping out his newly purchased gun from behind his back with his right hand, took aim at Adam's shoulder--and pulled the trigger.  
  
Like the great shot he was, Frank's bullet struck home and Adam flew backwards. He landed on the ground, sprawled in a most undignified position. Frank needed him to tell him where Jade Thrushton was located. He didn't mention Cody was working on the Embassy's security camera archives.  
  
"Like I said, today's your day to die," Frank said.  
  
"Shoulder wound. Won't stop me,"  
  
"Oh yes, it will. I'll just leave you here," Frank said, disarming Adam. "Unless you tell me where Jade Thrushton's being held," Frank said. "You know who I am, and what I'm capable of doing. You also know Sonny Walker," Frank said. His face took on a maniacal expression.  
  
"And even Sonny Walker would not condone your kidnapping a child and selling her into a child sex ring," he continued.  
  
He went silent as he and Adam looked at each other. Adam knew Frank was right. And he knew that Sonny Walker, while committing all sorts of crimes-- drug rings, porn rings, counterfeiting--Adam knew Sonny Walker would never condone using a child to get back at Franklin Donovan, no matter how much Sonny and Franklin 'disagreed' with each other.  
  
He also knew he just signed his own death warrant. For if Franklin Donovan let slip to his informants about Adam Banker's actions, Adam Banker would cease to exist.  
  
It was a choice of either giving Frank what he wanted, or dying at the hands of one of Sonny Walker's henchmen.  
  
He looked at Frank. That man was capable of being stone-faced, and stone- faced was what he was now.  
  
Adam, staring Frank down from his undignified position on the ground, decided to choose option "A". He liked that option better than the one potentially meted out by Sonny Walker.  
  
And Adam knew that Frank would let loose the information on what Adam had done. Oh the choices he'd made. He couldn't plan well, and couldn't realize the choice he'd made to kidnap the daughter of the American Ambassador would end up with his death. He'd just wanted to get revenge on Franklin Donovan.  
  
Well, since he was giving the information to Franklin Donovan, he'd at least be able to escape alive. He'd go to Brazil. Rio, land of the eternal party and the girls from Ipanema wearing their thongs. American officials had a difficult time extraditing people from Brazil.  
  
"Jade is located back in Phnom Phen, on the street right behind the American Embassy," he told Frank. "In the uninhabited yellow house," he finished.  
  
Frank considered this statement. Just steps away from her father for these last several weeks? Cruel.  
  
Cody's voice told Frank that Adam Banker had indeed been around the American Embassy in the past three weeks. Several times in the two days before Jade was kidnapped.  
  
"Frank? There is a blurry picture from one of the back cameras showing a partial side view of a man looking like Adam Banker leading a shorter blonde person down the street right behind the American Embassy."  
  
Frank didn't react to Cody's confirmation of the information Adam had just given him. Jade was about five four and had blonde hair.  
  
He cuffed Adam. "You're coming with me and there I will ensure what you have told me is correct," Frank told him  
  
He dragged Adam to his feet, over to the car, and pushed Adam into the back seat.  
  
"Please. Put my feet up, I'm dizzy," Adam asked Frank. Frank ignored his request.  
  
"Cody," Frank said. "get the Cambodian police to the American Embassy," he said.  
  
"Yes, sir!" Cody replied in Frank's earpiece. Frank got in the car and started the long drive back to Phnom Penh. He left Adam's rental car where it was on the road. Someone would come along and steal it, Frank knew.  
  
Adam was weak from the lack of blood. He was rather looking forward to getting to the American Embassy. Funny how the loss of blood made your brain spin.  
  
Neither Frank nor Adam said a word during the long drive back to the American Embassy. The drive took an hour.  
  
************  
  
She was filthy. She had to be, she hadn't been given a bath since she last saw her father. At one time, she would have wondered where she was, who was going to take care of her.  
  
But no more. She didn't know how long she'd been in this dark place--was it a box? a trunk? a room? She didn't know. She could walk around but she thought that was her imagination.  
  
Sometimes, she was fed. Most times, she wasn't. She was given enough water to keep her alive, but most of the time, she had to resort to evacuating her bladder onto her shirt, then wringing the urine into her mouth.  
  
At first, she'd hated to do that. Urine tasted bad. But after a while, her parched throat forced her to take in any liquid she could get into her thin body. Not that her body was giving her much liquid to begin with, but she'd worked with what she had gotten.  
  
She paused in her activity. She was in the process of wringing out her shirt when she heard the footsteps. Many footsteps. She was surprised she could hear many footsteps. Usually, there was just one set of footsteps. Then, hands would push through the slats the water she was allowed. Sometimes, food would be pushed.  
  
This is what she wanted very badly: food. She remembered the smell of cooking food in her mother's house. She remembered the smell of cooking food at a school she used to attend--she couldn't remember the name. She vaguely remembered there was a time when she could go somewhere, and hand somebody some paper, and they would give her hot, delicious food.  
  
Would she get the food today?  
  
The door lock was jiggled. She went towards the door.  
  
"Don't. She's been in there a long time. The light will hurt her eyes," an accented, deep male voice said.  
  
Hurt me? How else could I be hurt? She thought to herself.  
  
"Jade?" the male voice called softly, as he took out a bulbless flashlight which Cody, knowing batteries had an annoying habit of not working when one had need of a flashlight (and also ever mindful of Frank Donovan's need of keeping everything in working order), had found in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. Frank lighted the bulbless flashlight and pushed it through the slats on the door.  
  
"Jade? I'm handing you a flashlight." She squinted. The male voice continued. "I know you want to get out now, Jade, but you've been in the dark for quite some time, and you need just a few minutes to acclimate your eyes to seeing light again," the male voice had a comforting tone, and Jade felt comforted.  
  
"Does it hurt your eyes?" the voice next asked.  
  
She tried to say yes but all she could get out was a grunt.  
  
Next through the slats came a bottle of water. She grabbed the bottle of water and drained it.  
  
Another bottle of water came through the door. Again she grabbed the bottle and drained that too.  
  
"Can you talk now?" the voice asked. "My name is Franklin Donovan, Justice Department. I'm here to get you home."  
  
Jade worked her tongue around her mouth. "Yes. Yes I can," she said. She could talk again! "Thank you. Thank you for telling me why you didn't open the door yet," Jade said. She was surprised to find herself being able to think. All it took was somebody to talk to? Would this man stay with her? Would he continue talking to her? As if he could read her thoughts, the male voice now said:  
  
"It's been five minutes, Miss Jade Thrushton. I'm going to give you a stronger light. This will hurt your eyes," Frank said.  
  
"I don't mind," Jade found herself saying.  
  
A halogen flashlight next came through the slats. The flashlight was turned on. Jade shouted, "ahhhhhhhhhhh!" and raised her arms to shield her eyes.  
  
"The pain will pass shortly," Frank said.  
  
And Jade discovered he was right.  
  
"It's been five minutes more. I'm going to unlock the door. Stand back," Frank said. He delivered a Krav Maga kick to the slatted door. The door fell off its hinges to reveal a filthy Jade standing in the middle of the room, blinking and squinting at the additional light which poured through the doorway.  
  
The light dimmed as Franklin Donovan stood in the doorway. "You'll be all right now. I have someone who wants to see you," he told her.  
  
Jade could only feel happiness as she blinked at her rescuer.  
  
Then her rescuer stepped aside and Jade saw her father. "Daddy!" she squealed as Jeremy shouted, "Jade!"  
  
**********  
  
Frank sat at his desk in the nest, fiddling with his world time clock, feeling pleased with himself. Adam Banker was in custody in Phnom Penh. He'd cut a deal with the Cambodian courts and had ratted out several members of the Phnom Penh child sex ring. Several members of the ring had already been arrested, and most of them had died suddenly while being held for trial.  
  
Adam would be serving his reduced sentence of fifteen years in a Cambodian jail.  
  
Jake and Alex had indeed gotten their emergency loan. And they'd also discovered that one of the Embassy employees had been involved in the kidnapping of Jade Thrushton.  
  
Alex had inadvertantly discovered the woman's involvement when she saw the woman open a drawer in her desk and Alex had seen a pile of American dollars which shouldn't have been there. Alex had been suspicious about the large amount of cash, for cash was usually kept in a safe, not an unlocked desk drawer. Further investigation by the Cambodian police and Embassy personnel turned up the fact the woman, a liason employee, had accepted a bribe from Adam Banker for telling him the schedule of Ambassador Thrushton and his daughter. She too had been arrested and jailed by the Cambodian police. Frank could almost feel sorry for her, but chose not to.  
  
Meanwhile, Jade had filed a petition in the court asking the court to grant her emancipation from her mother. Frank, with Ambassador Thrushton's approval, was going to swing it with the judge overseeing the petition so that Jade would be legally emancipated from her movie actress mother, who had been unceremoniously replaced in the movie she'd been shooting in Canada.  
  
_______________________________________  
  
NOTES:  
  
all the statistics Monica gives were printed on the BBC's news web site and are actual statistics about child sex rings...if you are looking for Cody's really neat electronic gadgets, head on over to www.hammacherschlemmer.com 


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